Forbidden Days (The Firsts) by C.L. Quinn

dark place.  The events that unfolded were heart rending…a young woman, girl, really, her long hair tied back with a rag, her green eyes stained with sorrow and fear.  An emaciated woman, heavily made up, heavily lined, was grinning evilly at her as she pushed her into the miserable room with a disgustingly nasty old man.  What happened next shocked him, from the beginning moment when they were alone to the moment he was made to leave.   His head pounded and he was dizzy again, then finally back in his own mind at this moment there on the balcony with Park.  She was leaning against him now.
    He pulled back sharply, his eyes captured hers.  She shook her head.
    “What?” she asked, confused at his sudden withdrawal.
    At first he couldn’t speak.  Then he scooted back in.  His eyes searched her face.  Yes, yes, he knew it.  It had been her.  Oh, god.  He knew her mother was a bitch, but this…
    She searched his eyes again innocently.  “Bas, what is it?”  Then it dawned on her.   Their connection…oh, no, No, he couldn’t have…she couldn’t bear it if he had…
    She pulled back and got up, went to the railing.
    “What did you see?” she asked, her voice stoic.
    “Park…I saw the…I saw what happened, why you’re up here struggling to forget it.”
    She dropped her head.  Oh, well…it couldn’t really matter…she’d be leaving now.   It would have happened sooner or later anyway…no surprise it was sooner.
    She turned to him.  “I’m sorry.  I’ll pack up.  Just my own things.  Can I get a cab out of here?  I hope I don’t need to take one of your staff away to drive me all the way to town.”
    Bas was behind her, his breath on her throat.
    “What are you talking about?  You are not leaving.”
    “You can’t want me here now.  Not after you see what I am.  What I’ve done.  I’m dirty, Bas.  She always told me I was.  You don’t want me here now…I’m going to go.
    He grabbed her and held her.
    “You will not leave my sight.  What I saw was a beautiful young girl being treated horrifically by those she should have been able to trust.  There is nothing wrong with you.  You are smart and gorgeous and I want you more than anyone I have ever known.  You don’t feel that?”
    She lifted her head, glistening eyes looking into his.  “I thought I did.  But now that you know how I was…how I lived…Bas, I was always told I wasn’t worth anything.  I try to get past it, but sometimes…”  She shuddered.  “Sometimes I’m back there and have to fight to get home again.  That’s why I have the music.  It gets into my head and helps me push it back.”
    “You’re not going to push it back anymore.  You’re going to exterminate it.   Your past was the result of terrible people.  You were a victim, Park.  So do not ever tell me again that you are not worthy of me.”
    He held her again, and then pulled back, looked deeply into her eyes, their connection intense, and kissed her, thoroughly, took her breath away, took her past away and left only the incredible present.  When he pulled away, his eyes were shining too.  Look at that, Park thought, a vampire with tears.  It showed how much he cared that he could let her see that.  It touched her like nothing else in her entire life.  She could feel the healing begin.  And touched his face.
    “It means so much that you accept me.”
    “I more than accept you. I want you and I’m going to show that soon.  But now, I really have to get to that meeting.  I want you to come with me.  Will you?”
    Park nodded.  She’d go anywhere with him.  For him.  “Let me wash my face, fix my makeup.”   He nodded and followed her into the room, but she could feel the sadness in him for her because he had witnessed that man’s assault.
    “Bas, he didn’t hurt me.”
    “No, he didn’t get to.  But she did.”  He hesitated before he asked.  “Is she dead?”
    “No, but I don’t know where